Dear John,

Just over a year ago, in the frightening days following the Jan. 6 insurrection, I was heartened that our CEO Jonathan Greenblatt was invited to testify to the House Homeland Security Committee. That day, he rolled out ADL’s PROTECT Plan to prevent and counter domestic terrorism while preserving civil liberties. Our goal was to provide constructive, bipartisan ways for the government to take action to reduce the threat of extremist violence.

The sum of the categories in the plan are more powerful than any one bill, and tailored to combat domestic extremism while protecting civil liberties.

Since PROTECT was announced, it has been one of ADL’s top priorities, so we wanted to give you an update on how we’re making this ambitious plan a reality.

Volunteers like you, alongside the ADL experts, have engaged hundreds of times with Congress and dozens of times with the Biden-Harris Administration. We’ve met with law enforcement officials, state Attorneys General and local elected officials. ADL volunteers also sent thousands of emails to lawmakers to prioritize PROTECT-related issues.

Here is just some of the progress made on PROTECT goals since then...

• The Administration released the first-ever National Strategy on Countering Domestic Terrorism. This comprehensive, interagency strategy closely mirrors the provisions of the PROTECT Plan.
• The Justice Department issued guidance to prosecutors to ensure domestic terrorism prosecutions are a top priority. Domestic terrorism cases have increased from 850 cases per year to 2,700 cases currently.
• The ADL Center on Extremism has investigated individuals arrested for the Jan. 6 insurrection, identifying people with ties to extremist groups or movements including Proud Boys, QAnon adherents, anti-government extremists, white supremacists and other far-right extremists. ADL has met several times with the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th attack on the capitol, providing expertise and guidance.
• The ADL-supported Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act will help ensure transparency in resourcing and critical oversight mechanisms. Thanks to a strong push from ADL and others, the DTPA enjoys broad bipartisan support, including over 200 cosponsors in the House.
• ADL has strongly supported the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to provide security funds to nonprofits like synagogues and other community institutions, and we are calling for an expansion of the program. We have won several Members of Congress to our side and hope to expand and improve these crucial security resources.
• The Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense both announced reviews to root out extremists in their ranks. ADL widely disseminated a comprehensive toolkit for law enforcement agencies for use in identifying, punishing and/or removing extremists within their ranks.
• A number of states have advanced PROTECT-related priorities including Maryland, which created a task force on domestic terrorism and named ADL to that team; Louisiana, which created a state Nonprofit Security Grant Program; California, which has a pending bill to eliminate the 2024 sunset provision of its existing Nonprofit Security Grant Program and Michigan, which is considering legislation to investigate Michiganders involved with January 6th.
• We worked with the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights to release a letter supporting key provisions of PROTECT, giving it critical support in the civil rights community.
• To help face the challenges of online hate, ADL launched a plan called REPAIR. We have met repeatedly with Congressional tech leaders and have helped draft key legislation aimed at transparency and accountability, including reform of Section 230 and surveillance advertising. At the state level, ADL authored a bill introduced in California that would compel transparency from platforms for content moderation practices, including “extremism.”

We will continue to disrupt domestic extremism and while we have made great progress, there is still much more we can do with Congress, the Biden-Harris Administration, state governments and community partners to tackle the extremist threat.

If you want to get involved with the fight against extremism, please take a moment to remind your Members of Congress to take action:

• Pass the bipartisan Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2021 to ensure that the federal government is prepared to counter domestic terrorism, but also that it will be transparent in its approach.
• Increase funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to secure synagogues and other houses of worship and religious institutions.

Thank you for all you do as part of the ADL community.

Sincerely,
George Selim
SVP, National Affairs
ADL